Right at the bottom of one of the boxes at Godolphin we found this sheet of lead. We put it down to look at later thinking it was just plain old lead sheeting. But as the light changed through the afternoon it revealed that it was far from plain.
If you look closely you can make out marks where someone has been pinching or tapping the lead to make a picture of a bird, it looks like a Hawk with maybe jesses attached.
- Detail of the head and breast
Malcolm, the development manager at Godolphin and with a life times experience on the property soon identified what this lead sheet had been used for and even where it had come from on the property. If it is turned 90 degrees there is a pale area in the middle this is where it has been protected by a drain pipe and the kink is where the lead has been hammered round a stone on the wall. The sheet is where there is a joint in the pipe and would protect the wall if there was a leak in the joint. Malcolm told me that there are lots of places where lead has been marked by scratched graffiti or engraved with images. I feel a new volunteer project in the offing 🙂
Detail of tail and jesses
Archaeology National Trust SW 